Page 74 of The Matchmaker

“Evidence ofwhat?” Panic bubbles inside of me. That’s my mother’s bracelet. They can’t just have it.

“Ms. Khan, we discovered this not far from where Lena and Tanvir were held. Lena’s mother recognized it as yours,” says Delray. “We simply want to clear things up.”

I know our relationship is a business one. But for her mother to have cast suspicion my way is gutting.

“This doesn’t make sense.” My voice breaks. “What is going on?”

I try to sit up. The purse falls from my lap and tumbles to the checkerboard floor. My keys, stray receipts, everything falls out. Including a pill bottle. White tablets tinged with blue fan out on the vinyl floor.

“How did those get in there?” Kirkpatrick says wryly.

“They’re not mine.” I want my voice to come out strong, authoritative, but it’s a whisper. A whimper.

“You wouldn’t mind if we checked—” Kirkpatrick kneels down, but Khala juts in front of them.

“She would certainly mind.”

“Now, hold up one second,” he begins.

“Absolutely not,” she snaps. “Your accusations are outright defamatory, and they end right now.”

“We’re just trying to get to the bottom of whatever is going on. We’re on the same side,” Kirkpatrick says.

“Does she have to answer any more questions from you?”

He sighs. “She does not.”

“You are on a fishing expedition, and I suggest you cast your lures elsewhere.”

“Ma’am,” Officer Kirkpatrick begins. “I could just—”

“My name is Shameem Mirza,” she says firmly. The way she looks at those officers. Her back straight. Her eyes shining. Tears spring to my eyes. That’s her. The woman I knew so well all those years, there she is.

“You both are invited to leave.” She points to the door. “She will not be speaking to either of you again without a lawyer present.”

I wait until they’re gone before I sink into the bed.

“Oh, my sweet Nura.” Khala grips my hand. “Don’t worry. You will be just fine in no time…”

She keeps talking, but it’s hard to focus on her words. I want to thank Khala. To talk to both her and Azar in order to makesense of this madness. But the two officers have taken all my energy. As they exit the room, the doctor reenters. Words float in and out.GHB…three times the prescribed levels…I can’t hold on to any of this as exhaustion roots within me and sleep takes over.

Twenty-two

“Lay low,” says Amara. “Until I can find you a real lawyer.”

“Youarea real lawyer,” I say. Amara is, in fact, a former classmate who went on to law school and holds the record for the second-longest dating streak with Azar. Looking around her office on the forty-second floor of Franck and Carter, the legal treatises stacked behind her, the enormous oak table, and her high-back leather chair, I shoot her a side-eye. “If you’re not a real lawyer, who is?”

“I’m a realestatelawyer. Getting you the lease on the corner of Skylance and Block was easy peasy, but I’m out of my depth here. You need a criminal attorney—I know, I know,” she says upon seeing my stricken expression at the wordcriminal. “But considering you already got yourself a bodyguard, you may as well get the right counsel for the other type of protection you need.”

Fiona Levi, bodyguard to the stars,isstanding outside this very door right now, thanks to Genevieve pulling a few strings. Fiona keeps watch at all times. She trails behind my car in her Lincoln everywhere I go. Fiona—and Gus, who trades shifts with her—has a list of my trusted circle, and other than them, she’s on guard for anyone who so much as looks my way. It’sbeyond strange to be followed like this, but I’m relieved knowing someone is keeping a watchful eye out. No more half measures; my harrowing ordeal has ensured I take this as seriously as the situation calls for. I even checked into a hotel last night.

“I can’t believe you’re dealing with so much,” Amara says.

“Me either. How is this my life?” I tell her. “On top of it all, I also have to worry if the police will arrest me. The way they interrogated me at the hospital, I felt like their prime suspect.”

I can’t even blame them. The bracelet the officer had shown me had fooled me too. But once I was home, to my relief, I found my mother’s jewelry exactly where I’d left it.

“It’s why you need to be sure you’re properly lawyered up ASAP,” says Amara. “But don’t freak out. If they had enough to arrest you, they’d have arrested you. Have they asked you to come into the station since the hospital confrontation?”

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